Teens Can Write Two: February Blog Chain

Hello my lovely past readers and hello my new readers. Welcome to my blog. It’s a nice place to be. Today I have the pleasure of presenting you my thoughts on the topic of this months TEENS CAN WRITE TOO BLOG CHAIN.

Why yes.

The capitals were necessary.

This months prompt was: What are your thoughts on romance for your typical genre? Do you tend to have a little, a lot, or none at all?

Oh hahah. Ha haha. Ha. I have things to say, dearest readers. I have lots of things to say.

You see, once upon a time in mystical kingdom over the hill, I was fairly positive that I was a princess. A princess that did not like to read. Ever at all. And then something happened. This thing would be called Twilight.

Yeah. I know. But seriously. It got me to *read*. It got me to obsess and freak out over vampires but over all it got me to READ.

Why? Because of the reason everyone who loved it loved it. It was about a freaking vampire that was freaking hot and freaking in love with a freaking normal girl. Freaking. BUT because I read this book, because I was obsessed with romance, and because as we all know I was destined to become a girl who can seriously appreciate a good novel, I tend to think it was somewhat worth it.

I mean, the thing about romance, whether you are for the gushy love scene or not, whether you are for the heart break or not, or whether you adore the hot boy vampires or not, it’s something that everyone relates to. It’s a feeling that everyone has felt. Something that everyone can sigh about knowingly since 4th grade when you had a crush on a boy that pull your hair on the play ground.

Romance is *important* to literature. It raises the stakes in high speed action scenes when you know the hero’s bride-to-be is on the other side of the wall he’s about to blow up. It reminds you of the loss of someone you loved when you see the heroine carrying the flag of her fallen soldier while wearing black. And of course, it gets you all riled up when the heroine just *can’t* decide which *boy* is right for *her*.

In my writing, romance is never the main topic. I mean, I’m sure that works for some people, but for me it just doesn’t really flow with me very well as the ENTIRE book. But it’s never far from the plot. I can’t lie, I like to swoon over fictional characters, cry when someone who isn’t real perishes, and write songs about the emotions that some authors can layer on so well. I happen to think love is rather important. That’s just something about me.

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§ 21 Responses to Teens Can Write Two: February Blog Chain

I loved books long before I read Twilight, but I’ve got to admit, Twilight introduced me to the idea of romance in literature. (I lose the term “literature” very loosely when Twilight is in the same sentence.) I’m secretly–or not, now–enamored of romance being close to the plot line in YA. You have no idea how many fictional characters I’ve had crushes on, except now I’m expanding my horizons and swooning over characters from movies, TV, and webcomics as well. Anyway, I do like a bit of romance, but the rest of the novel has to be well-written with a solid plot in order for me to really enjoy a book.

I agree completely. One of my favorite examples of said solid-base-lines-with-romance-on-the-side is anything by Melina Marchetta. OOh. And I Am The Messenger by Markus Zuzack. Both Australian, and excellent in all the ways that matter while ALSO giving me boys with accents. *nods head* Win-win situation right there. And yeah, while Twilight got me to read, I’ve definitely grown in my tastes to a point in which Stephanie’s books can make me cringe looking back.

I too loved (most of) the Twilight saga. It’s not a series I would have picked up on my own, but with all the buzz (and with doing school visits where I was being asked, “Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?”) I decided I needed to check these books out. Very, very absorbing reads. Same with Hunger Games. Totally captured me.

Some of the writing drives me crazy, rereading them, but I owe a lot to Twilight for getting me to read in the first place. I mean it became so big for a reason. Hunger Games was also a book I read early in my reading career, and kind of proved to me that not all books were completely fluff, so I suppose I owe a bit to that series as well. :)) Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Hmmmm…. you’re definitely more into the whole romance thing than me, aren’t you? But I don’t hold that against you. Most people are 😉
However, I admit that when people are in love, their deaths and failures and set backs mean so much more than before! As you’ll notice if you read my post… You see, I’m very mean to my characters, and it’s so much easier to torture them if they’re all angsty and in love, trust me. Especially because you can just kill the ‘love of their life’ and then they go all depressed and then you can laugh at them.
Man, I sound like some sort of sociopath. I do apologise.

Oh, I’m a romantic. For sure. But I get that lots of people aren’t. And yes, you do seem a little sociopathic (is that a word?) don’t you? : ) That’s okay most of the people I know are. I have learned to appreciate instead of hate.

I think it might be a writer thing. Then again, my friend Caitin is insane and she doesn’t write at all, she’s a maths geek. I’m not sure. She was the one who first told me I was a sociopath because I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t nice to torture my characters in the way that I do and why I really needed not to say, “Ah! I know who I can kill!” on crowded buses (I was plotting, honest), because apparently that’s not socially acceptable.

Teehee. We all have our own brand of social unacceptability, I think. Most of the time, I’m just explaining to people why when I point out things about them, it’s not because I’m going to stalk them later, it’s because I would like to replicate bits of them on paper and possible have them die later. Usually, they like that idea even less.

Nice post! I hadn’t thought about it before, but you’re right about romance being important to literature. Though now that I do think about it, that’s kinda obvious. Oh, well, I can’t expect my brain to function properly all the time. I too like to swoon and cry over fictional beings. Except Mr. Darcy. I really can’t get into liking him.

Oh Mr. Darcy is wonderful in that aggravating conceded jerk sort of way! But yeah, he didn’t really get me swooning too much either. : ) I do appreciate romance in literature a lot, I think it’ so conected in Love, it’s hard to ignore. And I happen to be a fun of Love quite a bit. : )

I’m not much of a Twilight fan anymore (though once upon a time I was quite the Jacob defender), but I can appreciate what you say here about romance. On some level, we can all relate to it, and it’s partly for that reason, I think, that a lot of people feel that any good book should have romance in it. Being emotionally invested in the characters like that attaches us to the story more. Nice post.

Oh my God, me either. My Twilight days were over as soon as I was introduced to books that had an emotional tie with their… you know… not obnoxious characters and more stable plots. (but yeah, totally team Jacob. *blush*) But yes, romance is one of those things that everyone wants to feel/has felt/believes in. It gives books a bit of a common ground. Actually, it kind of gives human beings a bit of common ground, doesn’t it?

Hehehe, yeah. I’ll agree with the awesomeness of this post right after I’m done laughing at your humor.

Seriously, how do people pull that off so well? Anyway.

Well done with the post! Twilight was never my preferred choice of reading (if you read my post for this chain, my experience consisted of reading three lines and then laughing my head off. Seriously. Three lines). But good job anyway.

Why thank you. I quite enjoy being called humorous. Probably my favorite things people say to me on occasion.
Yeah, Twilight can be quite hilarious in all of it’s splendid horrible-ness. When I read it, it was pretty much the *only* thing I had read by choice, so of course I loved it then. But yeah, pretty much never going back there. : )

Good to see a nice twist to the chain with someone who is really into romance. I’ve never read Twilight and never want to, but I don’t really think I’m the target audience for that book, anyway. 🙂 We have pretty much opposite opinions on this, which is kind of cool. I mean, I think that some romance in YA can definitely add to the plot but I’m really just not interested in books revolved around the same, gooey and overdone romance. I guess some people are, though, ’cause those books get lots and lots of sales.
Nice post and thanks for participating!

I don’t think I’m *really* into romance, per se, I just think it’s really important. Everyone wants to be loved right? But still, Books that are purely romantic mush are… well… *mush*. But yeah, I think that the differences in opinion are the point of this blog chain are good also. Hearing other’s opinions on the same topics? I like it.